Brick and mortar retail stores include a physical presence, for example, a store selling products in a building accessible to customers. The store is staffed by employees or contractors and offers offer face-to-face customer experiences. In addition, brick and mortar retail stores carry product inventory on-premise, which improves the customer experience in the following ways.
First, a customer can physically see and handle the product before purchase. This is important for product purchase where “fit” and “feel” is important, such as purchasing running shoes, riding lawn mowers, bicycles, etc.
Second, the customer can take possession of a purchased product immediately. This is important when the customer needs the product in a short timeframe.
Third, the retail store offers live support staff to interact with the customer. For some customers, this improves the customer experience.
In contrast, an online store includes an internet-only presence, such as a retail website configured to display a catalog of available products and accept purchase orders.
First, customers find it easy to comparison shop, whether for price or similar products, by visiting various online stores on the Internet. Such comparison shopping can be done from the convenience of the customer's home or wherever there is Internet access.
Second, online stores can offer a lower price to users due to their lower overhead. Online stores do not need to maintain a physical store in a customer-accessible location, can maintain lower inventory levels, and can reduce or eliminate sales taxes.
Third, online stores can offer greater convenience by being available around-the-clock. There is no need to visit during business hours.
Thus, both brick-and-mortar retail stores and online stores offer their own advantages. However, it is difficult to combine the two models, so that the customer experience is improved. A customer can visit a brick-and-mortar retail store, but will not usually have easy Internet access, and therefore can not comparison shop after examining and deciding to buy the product.